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Puppies are clever and ready to learn – you just have to teach them what you want them to do.
Before you bring your new puppy home, it’s important to set yourself up for toilet-training success. Reading up on dog behaviour cues and housebreaking advice, and setting up a short-term confinement area (like a dog crate or a puppy pen), can help limit the number of toileting accidents your pet will have throughout the house.
We’re all busy. It’s likely you won’t have eyes on your pup every second of the day. If you have a puppy wandering unsupervised through the house, accidents will happen. However, with a crate or pen, you’re setting up a safe space for your dog where they can sleep and relax.
Tip: If you’ve got young children at home, teach kids not to go near your pet when they’re in their crate so the puppy doesn’t feel threatened.
The other essential tool for toilet training your dog is treats. Positive reinforcement training uses motivating rewards like food or toys to encourage desired behaviour in your pet. Puppies are quick learners and they’re highly motivated by food, so arm yourself with treats like roast chicken, dried liver or straps that can be broken into small pieces.
For most people, the goal of house training is for their dog to toilet outside on the grass; you need to teach your pet that’s what you want them to do.
Very young puppies have virtually no bladder control – in fact, they won’t be able to hold their bladder until they’re four or five months old, so you have to be vigilant. Take your puppy outside onto the grass every time it wakes up, eats, drinks or finishes playing or running around (this could be one or two times per hour).
Just as they do their pee or poo, mark the behaviour. Some people use a dog training clicker, but it’s often easier to use a one-syllable verbal marker, like the word “yes”. Mark the behaviour – “yes” – then give your pup a little treat as a reward.
When you mark the behaviour and reward it with the treat in your hand, you’re fixing it in the dog’s mind: “This is what I’m getting rewarded for.”
Toilet training your puppy won’t happen overnight, and how long it takes depends on you and your dog. However, the more consistent you are and the more you use this method to reinforce the behaviour you want, the faster you’ll get there.
If you’re looking at using a training mat or pet potty – perhaps because you’re living in an apartment – here’s a housebreaking trick that might help. If you can collect some of your puppy’s urine, pour it over the mat. Dogs have a highly developed sense of smell and, if they recognise the smell of their urine, they’re more likely to toilet in the same place.
Otherwise, the way to teach your puppy to use a training mat is the same as teaching them to pee or poop outside. Go to that spot with your puppy (especially just after they’ve woken up, played, had some water or eaten), and try to get them to toilet on that spot. Then mark the behaviour and reward them with a treat. Eventually, it will become a habit that the dog wants to toilet in that particular place.
If you’re toilet training a puppy, accidents are inevitable. Don’t acknowledge it or tell your dog off – remember, your puppy is still learning. This is not a teaching moment. Instead, put the puppy outside and the next time they toilet on the grass, reinforce it with a couple of extra treats.
Clean up the mess as soon as you can and use a specialist pet odour-removing spray. These types of cleaning products have an enzyme in them that breaks down the smell of dog urine. This will reduce the likelihood of your puppy going back there again to pee.
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Photo Credit: Daniel Mahon
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